I-League: Dempo beat Goa, Royal Wahingdoh edge past Bharat FC

Margao, Jan 27: Dempo SC rode on strikes from Lenny Rodrigues, Alwyn George and Francis Fernandes to march past 10-man Sporting Clube De Goa 3-0 in an I-League football tournament encounter here Tuesday.

Sporting had to play with 10 men after defender Clement Joseph was sent off in the first half.

Dempo made a couple of changes to their starting line-up as striker Alwyn George and veteran midfielder Clifford Miranda replaced forwards Mandar Rao Dessai and Holicharan Narzary.

Sporting coach Mateus Costa also made two changes to his first eleven as Pratesh Shirodkar and Sumeet Passi were deployed in place of Don Bosco Fernandes and Joseph Pereira.

Five minutes into the game Dempo got a jolt when mid-fielder Peter Carvalho got injured injury and was replaced by Germanpreet Singh.

Both Sporting and Dempo had their chances but the custodians were equal to the task, keeping the game goalless till the 28th minute when Rodrigues found himself at the end of a midfielder Carlos Hernandez ball who then skipped past the defenders to fire in the first goal from the edge of the box.

Sporting encountered more problems two minutes into the first half stoppage time as they were reduced to 10 men, with defender Joseph being sent off for a second yellow card offence after a tackle on Miranda.

Dempo doubled their lead courtesy a George strike five minutes into the second half as he got away from his marker Rojen Singh and slotted the ball into the net.

Sporting tried to stage a comeback with only few minutes from regulation time to play but midfielder Royston Dsouza's shot and Liberian-Australian striker Boima Karpeh's header failed to find the target.

In the fourth minute of injury time, Joyner Lourenco's intercepted a pass from Germanpreet and the ball fell into the path of Francis Fernandes who went on to find the back of the net, making it 3-0.

In another I-League encounter in Pune, Royal Wahingdoh beat Bharat FC 2-1 courtesy strikes from Korean super-sub Kim Seong-Yong and Seityasen Singh after New Zealand forward Kris Bright had given Bharat an early lead.

It was a fiercely contested match where both sides created opportunities, but the Royals sealed their third win with pure grit, as they came-back for the first time in the league to take their chances in the second half and come up on top of their opponents.